Day 16: Karina to Tibro & I do some loppis shopping

Monday morning – now what will we do? 

Karina and Anders set off for the Kumla train station to meet Anna there, so the girls could catch the train to Tibro stay for a couple of days with Annika.

Church Loppis - crockery section

Agnete and I headed off to that Loppis just out of town at the church hall.  Loppis – or 2^nd Hand shops (literally ‘flea’ so a flea market) – are different to our op shops in that they are clean and tidy and displayed well.  This one is really set out well, with tables full of old – but well cared for – crockery, glass works, ceramics and brass things.  The clothes are all neatly sorted and hung in a room for men’s and one for women’s.  There was a big display of xmas decorations and lights.  So at last I bought myself a xmas lights stand – for 10kr about 80 cents…  and to think I nearly bought a new one on the net last xmas…  just hope that I can post it home and that it arrives in one piece – well, not too big of a monetary loss if not!!  Bought another candle holder that am also unsure how I will post it home, but just couldn’t resist.  Where’s there’s a will there’s a way!!

We then went into the city centre to checkout the Handcraft centre where top-notch crafts’ people in the region have a co-op to sell their products.  I bought my jacket there last time and this time I found a pair of wrist-warmers that were pretty nice – and it could still be cold in Brisbane when I get home again. 

We were on a mission to find Baby Roo for a friend’s grand-daughter.  Her baby roo (from Ikea) has gone on a holiday and not back come back yet and Ikea aren’t selling them anymore, so I was asked to keep an eye open in loppis in Sweden.  

Cute baby roo, but not the right one - Oh well, he can come along too

We then went onto another loppis (a private one this time) and I got a tad excited as I found a baby roo and his tag said he had been born in Ikea so I thought I might have solved the mystery.  But no – after checking by email, I was advised I had only found a relative, not the real one.  So the mystery remains – but our Baby Roo is returning to Australia anyways!

The weather turned against us and the rain really started to pour down.  The news said there had been major flooding down in the south of Sweden and also to the east of us at Västerås.  We were OK, but it was a good time to stay indoors now.

Spot Svampen in the rain

There it is!

Facebook was posting photos of 3 girls in Tibro enjoying a sauna and we later heard that to cool off, Karina just went out and stood in the cool rain.  But the Swedish girls jumped in a cold hot-tub!  They were obviously enjoying themselves.

But the rain stopped later and the landmark of Örebro - Svampen the water tower - was plainly visible again, just down the road from the apartment.

Svampen revealed!

I was beginning to think it must be time for another bike ride, so I planned for a pedal around Rävgången in the morning.  I rescued Maggie from the garage and locked her in the cykelrum with Anders’ bike.  Hopefully the sun will shine again in the morning.

Day 15 - Family time

There was no need to rush today – we had arrived in Örebro and were able to take it easy.  Things were planned for us tho and they included a drive out to Odensbacken to visit Agnete’s parents . 

Meeting new family members

Along the way, we dropped in at Storamellonsa to introduce Karina to Agnete’s sister, her husband and daughter, and to meet Zingo, a miniature Schnauzer – so cute and friendly.

And Zingo!

We had ficke with Ciri & Kalle and were again able to confirm that Ciri’s kanelbulle are the best in the world as well as another treat, saffron bread – a xmas cake, but made especially for us to try!

Chefs sharing secrets

From Odensbacken we headed back to Kumla, stopping along the way to go into the forest to have a look at some very old pine trees in a small reserve of old growth forest.  Sweden is having a very cool and damp summer this year and we were thankful of our jackets again – plus having the hood up seemed to keep the svea & mygg away – a little!

Kalle and his fishing painting

Old growth forest - pine tree

Just walking the dog

So back to Kumla for meet up Anna and Magnus again – and to introduce Karina to crazy Curtis!  All went well there – with lunch (some may have seen it on Facebook!) followed by strawberries and whipped cream.  Yep, the Swedes do know how to serve up good food.  Anna’s cheese pie was very yummy, baked with a special Swedish cheese – Västerbotten (I think).  It has the sharp tang of a pecorina, but much darker and is quite crumbly - also goes really well on crispbread!

And the swimming is easy - for Curtis!

The 3 younguns took Curtis and me for a walk around the Kumla park.  It is quite pretty with its summer flower plantings and the ducks in the ponds thought there might be some breadcrumbs, but were disappointed. 

So our first day in Örebro was over and we were happy to find our beds at the end of the day.

Day 14: Collection Day

Karina and I had a bit of a rough night in our Charcoal Burner’s hut.  Well… those guys did it pretty tough back then, so we weren’t expecting five star treatment.  The main problem with the beds was the leaning one way or the other.  My bed sloped towards the door – but we had been advised that we must sleep with our head near the door because of the fireplace at the other end of the hut.  The pillows were very thin so I spent most of the night, trying to think what I could put under the pillow.  Eventually, I found my gel seat that I had brought inside off my bike, in case it rained.  It did help a little.  Karina’s bed had a list to starboard, so she kept rolling onto the wall.  She said she didn’t get too much sleep, but I thought maybe she slept better than that – the deep breathing gave it away!

They found us in a forest

But morning came eventually and we climbed out of our beds and went for a bit of a splash in the small stream to wake ourselves up.  We raided the store room and filled our plates with muesli, bread buns and some jam & marmalade, plus brought the kettle back to boil some water for coffee.

Hitching a ride to Orebro

We got the fire going and were toasting some bread and discussing which way we might start riding so that we might meet with Agnete & Anders along the way, when we heard some talking and up the track came Anders & Agnete.  So no more biking for us now! 

It was so good to see them and for Karina to meet her aunty and make friends with her uncle again!

Put some more water in the kettle for coffee!!  Soon weare the cleaning dishes, packing panniers and wheeling our bikes down to the Suzuki for their ride into Örebro. 


Tapestry - design by Corneillev

We did a little detour going to an exhibition of prints and some tapestry all designed by Corneillev – a French artist.  It was a really nice exhibition space and the bright colourful ‘art deco’ like prints were quite beautiful.  http://www.galleriastley.com/ if you want more info.  The gallery is in a small village of Uttesberg – there used to be a railway line thru there, but not anymore.  The permanent collection is paintings and sculpture by the Russian-American artist, Ernst Neizvestny.  Follow the link for futher info - http://www.galleriastley.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=258&Itemid=1&lang=en

Ernst Neizvestny - gruesome stuff

Checking out an alternative

Threading smultron on a straw

Susannah and her cake

my portion - oh yes!

We dropped in on Susannah & Anders for lunch so that Karina could catch up with some family – meet her cousin Susannah and their children Lina and Gustav.  This is what we come to Sweden for – and it felt very comfortable being with them again.  The end of the meal was topped by a strawberry cake – like never tasted before.  A sponge cake cooked with a layer of meringue – then split in half, filled with cream, then topped with more cream and strawberries!  Yes it is strawberry time in Sweden – yum yum!!

Visiting the gravesite of grandparents, Ramsberg

Then into Örebro our final leg of the bike riding journey completed!

Day 13 - To Kolarbyn

A slow start to the day today - our mega ride yesterday has slowed us both down a bit.

Police Station in Sala

Restaurant we ate at last night, Sala

I have added the link - see below - if you want to see actually where we have been - if you have google.earth it does give a bit of an idea of the terrain we have been riding through.  a couple of times I-got-U gave up,  but generally it will give you an idea of where we have been.
http://www.a-trip.com/users/home/10338

So packing bags now and heading off to the Eco-lodge where we are going to be sleeping in a charcoal-burners hut - very tiny and no electricity, so don't expect any updates tonight!!

Hurry up Karina, get off Facebook and get loaded!

Today is our last day of our riding tour - on Saturday we are being collected by Anders & Agnete and we will then be spending time with catching up on family.  I will try and update my trip blog with photos during this time, plus add any rides I do - probably around Ravganging & Oset (spelling errors please ignore!!).

Short cut through the forest - 20km on unsealed road again!!

We left Sala in lovely sunny weather again – what???  Three days in a row??  It wasn’t too long before we discovered that the road showing on Gary was actually an unsealed road and it was loose gravel as well!  Gad – do we go ahead or turn back.  But if we turned back and took an alternative route it was going to add another 20km to a 80km day…  so let’s see what’s ahead.  Around a couple of bends the road changed into a 2-wheeled track, but at least it wasn’t loose gravel.  But were we on the right road?  We pedalled on a bit more and came across 3 adults and 3 or 4 kids walking along.  So we asked whether we would get to Visbo if we continued.  They were a bit taken aback!  They had a summer cottage in the forest and were entertaining the children by going on a mushroom hunt.  They have never been interrupted before by a couple of Aussies riding their bikes through the forest.  So we had a friendly chat and they confirmed that we would get thru to Visbo if we continued along the road.  They didn’t think it got any worse...

Hmmm... does the road continue after these boulders?

So we went on and I think we had a beautiful ride through real deserted forest – birds singing, sun shining and all well with the world.  Karina was a bit worried about getting flat tyres – there was no mobile reception – wot if something went wrong.  When my chain slipped off and got jambed, she was freaking out a bit, worrying that I would break the chain trying to loosen it.  But after some anxious moments, all was well and we were on our way again. 



Posing for Cycle de Vie - Karina lost in
a Swedish forest somewhere!!

I had the GoPro camera strapped to my helmet and a movement caught my eye – it looked like a small bear climbing a tree far away, so we pedalled a bit faster and discussed what it might have actually been.  I haven’t checked the whole film for that day – will report if it was!  It could have been a raptor flying up to land in the tree – we shall see.  “Enough of this bear talk” Karina said, so on we rode!

I won’t mention the several army green sheds we passed along the way – with warning signs attached…

Eventually we came to another gate which we were able to drag our bikes around and there was a suburb of Visbo straight away.  It was a bit of shock to the system – one minute total forest, the next total suburbia… 

It wasn't so bad?  Lucky we got no punctures tho!

Finnish Orthodox Church, Visbo

On Route 66!

Karina getting some food ready maybe - no Facebook here!

Billy's boiling!

*****

Visbo was a pretty industrial town and on the other side we stopped outside a strange looking church – a Finnish Orthodox church we read – and had some lunch before pedalling off along Route 66.  This bit of the ride was a real shock after our forest journey.  A busy large highway, with Gary Garmin telling us to get off it as soon as possible, trying to recalculate our journey.  The shoulder was only about a foot wide and the white strip was a ripple strip, so we had to just keep riding at a good clip and ignore the traffic flashing by. 

Eventually we turned west again and back onto a much more comfortable road, with less traffic.  We passed one of the Chevrolets that had earlier overtaken us… but its bonnet was up and 2 unhappy campers were waiting for the engine to cool down.  We gave them a cheery wave, but not a sausage in return!

Eventually, we came to the sign for Kolarbyn and turned up the road.  This eco-lodge is really having a small impact on the environment.  There were little tracks weaving up to the huts, a couple of fireplaces scattered around the huts and swimming was the showering option.  We were shown to our hut for the night – Kristina it was called, how appropriate!  It was a bit chilly, so we got the fire going in there, before going down to the store to see what was on offer for our evening meal.  We found eggs, bread, jam and we still had some cheese left – no worries!  But we felt tired and not very socialable, so we made our own fire and cooked up some tucker there.  We were invited to the main fire, so we later went over and introduced ourselves, told our tales and listened to theirs, but soon we came back to our hut, hoping for a good night’s sleep.

And a composting toilet

Our room for the night - Kristina, a charcoal burner's hut

Maggie's exhausted!

Bush TV

Dishwashing duties

place to rinse the dishes

thanks for following us along our way - emails & comments always appreciated, when we have had wifi!!

Day 12. Hallstavik to Sala

Pleasant little town of Hallstavik

Langer's Hotel - entre

So this was our big day of riding.  We started with a yummy and filling breakfast before packing our gear and loading up for our first full day in Sweden.  We said a fond farewell to Langers Hotel – a very pleasant and very comfortable night spent in lots of old world charm.

The sun was shining, it was blue skies and so we headed off in shorts and short-sleeved shirts – summertime at last! 

The first bit of the ride was pretty hilly with more up than down, but soon we were riding through rich farmlands in more open country.  There were still plenty of forests to ride through and it was interesting to see the difference and compare with Finnish scenery.  The farmlands here looked very productive – there were huge barns and the crops were already with full heads of wheat and oats, tho the rye was only just starting to set grain. 

Morning tea stop

Nice place to change a flat tyre...  grrr......

Farmlands, forest and fine roads!

Church with pleasant yard for picnicking

Local bus going somewhere

We stopped for morning tea alongside a lake, but when we climbed up the bank to the bikes, The Boss had another flat tyre – back one of course, so off came all the panniers and so on, blah blah. 
We had bought some bread buns and cheese for our lunch stop, so as we were coming into a small village, we thought we would find toilets and a park for our picnic.  But no toilets available here, so we used the church yard for our picnic and held off other things until we were back into the forest again.  Finding toilets is an on-going issue as the few petrol stations we passed were either totally automatic ones – pay by credit card and no other facilities – or ones with no toilets anyways! But I couldn’t believe our luck - we had nice flat country side to ride through and a tail wind!  It was really a pleasant ride and with Karina setting the pace at around 25-30kph the road was slipping away behind us.  This must the land where photographers come to take photos of Sweden.  Rolling green fields of ripening grain, patch-worked with bright yellow flowering canola plus the red barns near the pine forests.  But we had kilometres to ride, no time for taking photos, so on we went. 

See - the rivers are coco cola

Rushing away from the mill stream

Gary demanding attention.  Note my 1/2
of blueberry pie nearly finished!  Hurry up
with kanelbulle 

We rode north of Uppsala, one of Sweden’s major cities and through towns I am sure are mentioned in the “Girl with the dragon tattoo” series (gunna check when I get home).  Gary Garmin wasn’t quite sure that I had chosen the right roads to ride, as some had no names, so when Karina had to stop to reprogram Gary, we conveniently found a coffee shop to order coffee and cake also.  Yummy cinnamon scroll and a piece of blueberry cheese cake were ordered with coffee at the Ulva Krog Café.  It was beside a millstream (I think in the past it had something to do with wool) and here it was clearly illustrated that the rivers in Sweden are actually coca cola.  There was also an antique loppis upstairs, so I ducked up there for a quick look around before going back to our bikes.

Ulva Krog Cafe - Loppis upstairs



Only elk we saw today - an ad for an Elk farm

Now that Gary was happy we were going the right way, we headed west again.  We were in the saddle for a lot of the day, so not much time for taking photographs.  Just pedal, pedal, pedal.  The amazing thing was that the wind still gently blew from behind us and to top it off, the roads were nice quiet, flat narrow affairs with very little traffic.  But no small towns, just small groups of houses surrounded by farmlands or forests.  We stopped in one small village, hoping for toilets as always and this time an ATM but we only found the ATM - no public toilets.  Luckily there is a fair bit of forest also!  I think it's not usual to see bike riders all loaded up out in these areas – we certainly didn’t see any one else touring. 



SMULTRON!!!

Riding through one bit of forest, I glanced down at the roadside edge and saw smultron, glowing red among the leaves.  Brakes!!!  Smultron are wild strawberries that pack a strong powerful strawberry flavour in tiny packages!  So a vitamin C stop was called and we picked as many of the ripe ones that were in reach.  But they were all along the road edge for quite a way.  So we left some for the neighbourhood kids.  But Yummy!

At about 6:00, I was starting to get a bit tired, so I called for a snack break.  There was a lake alongside us and although Karina was keen to keep going, I knew I needed a break from the saddle.  We snacked on the last of our bread buns and some cheese and a muesli bar and were ready for the road again.  But I forgot to take any photos – yep, must have been getting a bit tired.

Approaching Sala at last!

The last 15km was along a major road - Route 76 - but we used their overtaking lane as ours. Now don't freak out - here in Sweden the overtaking lane is on the outside, so if you are driving slowly along and someone drives up behind you, you have to move into the outside lane and let the faster car thru. so its like a full lane of shoulder... well, that's how we read it - just a tad scary once, when a scooping tractor came charging up behind us and just moved into the fast lane at the last moment - sure he had it under control but......

Lilla Garden i Centrum, Sala - door open at last

So we eventually arrived in Sala and found the B&B I had booked.  There was no-one around, the door locked and things looked a bit grim.  I cheekily peeked into the letter box and there was a letter for me!  With the key and instructions (in Swedish) on how to use the security key and which room we were in.  I was struggling with my meagre knowledge of Swedish, when the owner arrived and opened the door, gave me the list in English – that helped – and we dumped our things in our room.  She recommended the restaurant across the road, so we washed our faces, changed out of riding gear and headed off.  Forgot to take the camera with me to photo our meal, I can remember it was good (apparently I had quesadilla and Karina went with the steak) and that we even went with dessert, but have to admit that things are a bit hazy!

Although it was a long ride - it was through Swedish postcard perfect country - you know, gingerbread houses, big red barns, green grain crops and yellow canola. Plus some forests and some lakes. We were mostly on country roads, narrow but sealed and courteous drivers and the gentle wind behind us most of the way!!  And the weather was beautiful….  What more could you want!

Stats:  143km 6:43hrs 21.3kph 56.5max – early downhill clocked a great max and Karina pushed us along to achieve that avg – but a very long day in the saddle – sore bums for sure!